I am a December baby along with five other family members. I also share my birthday with my second daughter. Having a birthday when the Christmas music has started to fill shopping malls has you playing second fiddle on your special day.

I remember growing up and my mom trying to find a birthday activity that wasn’t ice skating! The second challenge was having my friends show up; the closer to Christmas you get the busier everyone is with the holidays! Your presents come wrapped in red and gold and maybe even a reindeer print but you look past that because you get cake at the end of the party and hey at least it wasn’t a birthday-Christmas combo present.

In our house, we didn’t put up the Christmas tree until we had my birthday so that it would still feel like a birthday and NOT a Christmas gathering. But I have friends and family who are very close to the big day and were not as lucky. I do remember my favorite birthday party, I was about 6, we had a fairy godmother come to my party. She had this gorgeous silver and white dress and beautiful brown curly hair and of course she granted wishes!

After thinking of all the possibilities for my daughter’s birthday this year and realizing it would more than likely be cold and wet, I went with an indoor party. A princess theme won and we planned it for the end of November so it was far enough away from the holiday spirit. When my kids are young we have family birthday parties with a small number of kids (normally related). With an overload of princess décor and awesome goodie bags we were ready for the guests to arrive. We arranged for a very special princess surprise – Elsa! This was the best money ever spent. The kids were captivated for an hour with activities, singing and story telling with Elsa. I had parents telling me how much they like the party because they could hold an adult conversation since Elsa was there.  And let me tell you Elsa can sing!

Planning a child’s birthday party can be stressful and feel overwhelming even when you are not doing much; but in the end the kids do not notice the blunders only the fun and friends – oh and the cake!

We hired Crowned Princess Entertainment crownaprincess.com. From the booking to the performance everything was organized and well planned. My oldest daughter even invited Elsa to her 6th birthday party!

Any other December or early January babies out there with some good stories from when they were kids?